Eiji Koike isn’t your typical Japanese CEO. Yet it was with characteristic Nipponese resolve that he turned Cerebos’ once-beleaguered fortunes around.

When Eiji Koike arrived in Singapore in 1997, he wasn’t about to (pardon the pun) count his chickens before they were hatched. After all, he was taking over the management of Cerebos Pacific Limited – whose most famous product is Brand’s Essence Of Chicken – at a time when the organisation was bleeding money.

Koike, 63, had previously been president of Japan’s Suntory International Corporation, Cerebos’ parent company. To make the situation more challenging, his appointment coincided with the Asian economic crisis. The latter had led Cerebos to suffer a net loss of S$8 million for the year ended Sept 30, 1998.

Today, Cerebos, which was acquired by Suntory in 1990, is the Japanese food and beverage company’s best performing division. Much credit must go to Koike, who was named Outstanding Chief Executive Officer of the Year at The Business Times’ Singapore Business Awards 2010.

Cerebos’ revenues grew by eight per cent in the 2009 financial year, in local currency terms. The company is now working towards a $1bn annual sales target. (It has ambitiously doubled this goal to $2bn in the next five to 10 years.) To cap things off, Cerebos’ crown jewel, Brand’s, celebrates its 175th anniversary this year.

But, back in 1997 when things looked bleak, Koike – who has an economics degree as well as an MBA – knew he had to take drastic measures. Apart from serious structural issues in the company, his biggest problem was the employees’ mistrust of senior executives flown in from the head office.

“I needed to wipe out this mistrust, so I sent a lot of the expatriate staff back home,’’ he says. “I wanted the employees to know I was different from the previous managers, that I was on their side and not just someone sent from the head office to work for a few years, after which I would return to Japan.’’

Koike says he was – and still is – anchored by his belief in Cerebos’ flagship Brand’s Essence of Chicken, which he calls an “unpolished diamond”. While he does not question the efficacy of the almost two-centuries-old product, he recognises an urgent need to build on its legacy. As such, he is placing a special emphasis on R&D.

“In order to revitalise the product, we have to first understand what is inside it,” he says, adding that the research process he kicked off a decade ago is near completion. “We have to analyse the active mechanism between the chicken and the Chinese herbs. Nobody had ever tried to understand it before.”

Koike dreams of a life shuttling between work in Paris and tending to his own wine chateau in Bordeaux. “It’s an impossible dream,’’ he says, chuckling. “But that kind of lifestyle is my ideal.”

There is little time for dreaming at present, however, for there is much yet to do. “I would say I have not had my proudest achievement yet, but I know it will be with Cerebos, perhaps in the next few years. I always look ahead, not backwards.”

Not only does the refurbished Swatch Art Peace Hotel pay tribute to its glorious past, it promotes a happy marriage between art and hospitality.

To the everyday passerby, No. 19 barely resembled the majestic building in its heyday. Plastered with posters, the brick facade, once a vibrant red veneer, had lost all its lustre. Inside, the once grand lobby was caked in dust, having last served a guest several years ago.

But the Palace Hotel Nick Hayek saw was something quite different. It had caught his eye on a casual stroll with his colleague along the Bund. “It wasn’t the biggest building, but it certainly was the most emotional. It had soul,” says the chief executive of Swatch Group.

The visionary leader could have been referring to the hotel in another era – that of Shanghai’s decadent, pre-Communist epoch. But fast forward to more modern times, when the establishment now better known as the Peace Hotel South Building was in dire need of a new life.

It took many “relationship-building” dinners – and as Hayek quips, many “Mao-tais” – to convince the Chinese owners to entrust his company with the building. It helped that the brands under the Swatch umbrella were already familiar to the Chinese, particularly Omega – the leading timepiece brand in the country.

Today, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel has dusted off the ghosts of abandonment to stand tall as a world-class centre for contemporary art, culture and hospitality. The entire space smells unmistakably new, a heady dose of wood and fresh paint. A warm glow from the exquisite chandeliers infuse a marble floor lobby, with shop signs indicating the four exclusive watch brands – Omega, Breguet, Blancpain and Swatch – on retail here.

Besides injecting new life, the instruction to the architects, Paris-based Jouin Manku, was to restore the 121 sq ft space to its original glory and maintain its Art Deco highlights. Three years of restoration efforts have paid off – almost 100 per cent akin to the structure’s 1906 state, states Hayek proudly.

But even as the Swatch Group pays homage to history, it is blazing new trails with an innovative initiative within its storied walls. International and Chinese artists from various fields will be invited to live, work and exhibit their masterpieces in a communal environment of 18 ateliers.

Souvenirs aside, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel looks set to leave its mark on Shanghai’s architectural and art scenes. Life has come full circle, it seems, for this colonial icon so rich in history.

Every step in the life and work of British entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Cruddas has been taken to right the wrongs in his childhood – for himself, and countless young people around the world.

As a billionaire and philanthropist, Peter Cruddas has seen it all. But there’s still one story that moves him visibly every time he tells it.

He was at a Prince’s Trust charity function, meeting disadvantaged young people. “A young girl introduced herself to me,” he recalls. “She said, ‘You don’t know me, but if it wasn’t for people like you, I wouldn’t be here. I was a bad person, involved with drugs. I have two kids, and went to prison. The Prince’s Trust helped turn my life around.’”

Cruddas, last year declared the richest man in London in The Sunday Times’ annual rankings, gives millions of pounds to charities – he is involved in more than 20, including the Prince’s Trust, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and the Scouts – and gives to even more. And they are all focussed on helping young people who need a leg up, whether it’s in the form of financial assistance, motivation or self-belief.

But why the pinpoint focus on helping youngsters? Because, like the driving force beneath most of the commitments we make in our lives, it’s personal.

Cruddas grew up in dire circumstances. His family ravaged by alcoholism. His background was something he didn’t want to dwell on, but with some gentle probing, he plainly describes it as all “about survival; with no ambition, no money and no family unity, everything broke down.”

“If I hadn’t joined the Boy Scouts, I wouldn’t be what I am today. I was 14. The Scouts saved me. It’s where I learnt life’s basic skills – self-reliance, taking care of yourself, doing your best, helping other people, and competing with honour and fairness. And I realised only recently that it was the Boy Scouts that introduced structure into my life – something I didn’t have at home.”

By the age of 35, Cruddas was already hugely successful as Head Foreign Exchange Dealer at a large international bank. But there was a hankering for something else. “I realised I’d wanted to become an entrepreneur, and for one reason: to be in control of my environment. Because in the life I knew as a child, there’d been no control.

“It was 1989. I woke up one morning, got dressed, went into the city and hired an office.” Starting off as a boutique business trading in foreign currency, Currency Management Consultants Limited did well immediately. His big break came in 1996 when the company ventured into online trading, and launched the first system in Europe for online foreign exchange trading.

The best bit of advice Cruddas can offer an entrepreneur? “If you become successful, give to charity. It balances your life and keeps your feet on the ground. I’ve also met more businesspeople by giving money to charity than I have through business activity.”

The challenge, he says, is not to let the charity work override the business side of things. “I want to work for the next 20 years, and eventually focus fully on the foundation,” he says. “There are so many young people who just need a bit of help and encouragement, and then they’ll have their whole life ahead of them.”

Just like how the Boy Scouts worked their magic on him.